Legend of Dual Blades
by The Damned Damsel in Distress
Summary: Kirito meets a mysterious "NPC" in the beta test. She calls herself "Cardinal". KiritoXOC
1. Prologue

**Legend of Dual Blades**

~/By The D.D.D.

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( Draft ): Prologue

/This is a draft or a raw idea. I'm bad with execution. Anyway, hope someone will read this and enjoy./

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 **Beta Testing Age**

The place he was transported to was rather odd compared to what was foretold to be seen in the beginning floor. Last thing that Kirito remember was falling into the sky after being struck by a skeleton warrior, after that he woke up in a place surrounded by fog. He assumed he died and would respawn in the [ **Town of Beginnings** ] but unfortunately that wasn't the case. 'Maybe it's a bug?' he thought to himself as he walked around the vicinity trying to locate the exit or at least any information to where he currently was.

"Where am I?" he said to himself out loud. Kirito was surrounded by fog, he could barely see anything. It probably had been several minutes since he started looking around for clues or any signs of exit. But there was never any to be seen. He felt like he was looping around in a circle, so he stopped for a while and thought about just re-logging in.

Kirito hovered his hand in the air and summoned his game menu. "I'm just wasting time here. Might as well just restart again," he told himself as he pointed his index finger to the [ **Quit Game** ] option. But before he could press it, he heard a voice—it said words in a form of a song.

"Beneath the cliff is the [ **Barren of Fog** ]; where the lost stays waiting to be found. The lily of valleys cries out loud for happiness is nothing but a lost sound," the voice sang with melancholy laced to every word.

The fog started to clear a little bit. Light pierced through the gray clouds and illuminated a female sitting on top of a rock surrounded by some sort of glowing blue stalagmites. He focused my eyes on the one sitting on the rock. The was looking at me with interest as she rested her chin on the palm of her hands. She had a glowing blond hair with deep blue eyes and with a skin as pale a white. Her clothing was simple—or rather it was some sort of a plain short white dress. She was also barefooted.

He started at her for a couple of good seconds before my mind started to formulate thoughts. She couldn't be a player like him. If so, she would at least be wearing an outfit similar to his—an armour of some sort. Maybe she was an NPC? 'Yeah, that's probably the case. Maybe I found a hidden NPC! This is cool,' Kirito thought to himself, a bit excited to his random meeting with the NPC.

"Tell me, are you lost as well?" She asked him, her head titled to the side.

Before Kirito could respond, he saw an enormous shadow behind her radiating a menacing aura. He ran and jumped towards the NPC to save her. Both of them fell down on the dry ground. He immediately regained his focus and looked at the NPC before the attacker. She had a few scrapes but she was fine. On the other hand, the monster was not too happy about them escaping his attack.

"The lost must never be found," the monster growled as its eyes glowed red. The monster was a shadow, it held no form but the aura it radiated was intimidating and menacing. It growled once more. Darkness covered the whole vicinity.

Kirito stood up and unsheathed his sword. He adjusted his form and prepared himself to attack. "I can't see the status or level on this monster. What's happening?" he exclaimed as he started to panic. Normally there was a health and level indicator on the monster, but this one was an exception. Maybe this part of the game was still under construction of some sort and he just happened to get lost in it.

The monster prepared itself as it materialized into a more refined form. It shaped itself into a human like form and summoned dark wings of swords at its command. There was no detail to the new form of the monster, it was simply black along with the summoned swords. "What the hell?" Kirito exclaimed.

The monster didn't waste anymore time to attack Kirito. It sent swords one by one to attack him. Fortunately, Kirito somehow defended himself by sloppily deflecting most of them. The refined shadow laughed as it increased its power and charged a blade at hand. It locked its aim at Kirito and fired the charged blade at him.

One hit will surely kill him. "Shit," he exclaimed as he braced himself.

The sword didn't hit him. He heard a clash of metal. Kirito opened his eyes in surprise to see the NPC he saved had protected him from the attack. "Stand aside. I'll handle this," she told Kirito as she summoned the same bladed wings as the creature had. But she radiated light instead of darkness.

"You are an unwanted creature in my humble abode. I am required to delete you," she exclaimed as she summoned a white sword at hand and head toe to toe against the enemy.

She wielded her blade gracefully as she unleashed an upper slash attack on the shadow. It blocked her attack and sent a sword that stabbed her in the leg. The NPC didn't wince when her leg was impaled. She continued to attack and used her wings to break its defence. Her swords continuously made an upper slash. After the last blade, the enemy's defence was finally broken.

It was as if time had stopped as she gripped her sword tightly before dealing the final blow. She slashed the shadow in half. As the shadow shattered into pieces like a glass, the environment returned to normal. It was the same foggy area Kirito was in earlier.

As the NPC landed down to the ground, she turned around to see Kirito's face in a shock at what just happened in front of him. She walked towards him and offered a hand. He accepted her offer and he stood up with the help of the NPC. Kirito scratched the back of his neck in shame for letting a woman do the saving. Not that there was anything wrong with that.

"Thanks," Kirito said before asking a series of question. "So, uh, what was that thing earlier?" he asked. Normally, an NPC would explain everything after a certain event. Hopefully, at least this would be available for him. Everything else was deprived away from him the last few minutes inside the game—information and exit, he needed answers at least.

"That was a monster that came from your heart," she said as she stared at me in the eye. "It feeds off negativity and grows stronger as you become more confused and afraid."

Kirito gulped down. Was Sword Art Online that kind of game? He knew that the sensors in the Nerve Gear could most likely detect anxiety and fear because of some brain waves or body chemicals. But it was implemented in the game? He didn't expect it from Kayaba Akihiko.

The NPC laughed at his reaction and merely placed a hand on his shoulder. "Do not fear. I am merely joking. It was an unwanted program that must be deleted," she reassured him. But now it made him even more confused.

"Who are you? What _are_ you?" Kirito asked as he scratched his head waiting for an explanation.

The NPC laughed at him once more and shook her head before taking off her hand on his shoulder. She took a step back and said, "Silly, I am no mere NPC. A regular AI would not respond to these types of questions." She summoned her wings made of blades and raised her hand.

The fog disappeared and the environment began to change. The land began to crumble and everything became black. Strings of lines of codes swirled all over the area. Kirito took a step back and gazed everywhere to find every virtual object gone. The bare bone of a program was visible. Lines of codes where everywhere.

He looked back at her, his eyes pleading for an answer.

"I am Cardinal. The Guardian of the world of Aincrad," she gallantly introduced herself as she flipped her blond hair backwards.

Before he could ask nor say anything else, he was interrupted by her.

"I apologize but I cannot let you stay here any longer," she said in sad tone. Cardinal raised her hand and controlled her summoned swords. She sent them flying towards Kirito. But instead of attacking him, it circled around him.

As she slowly moved her hand down she spoke her last words to him, "Good bye, Kirito."

The swords stabbed the ground. Afterwards everything was engulfed by light. Pillars of light came from the swords that she used. Kirito faded into the light, the last thing he saw was Cardinal giving him a sad smile.

It was a familiar smile.

When he woke up, he was out of the game and back into reality. It was a weird phenomenon that he later on asked people in the forums about. Much to his surprise, whenever he posted a topic about it, it simply just gets deleted.

Why?

The beta game ended without anyone else encountering the [ **Barren of Fog** ] and [ **Cardinal** ]. Or so he believed.


	2. Chapter 1

**Legend of Dual Blades**

~/By The D.D.D.

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Chapter 1: The Vision

/Thanks for the reviews early chapter. And I just recently was informed Cardinal was an actual character in the series. I personally never knew about this until someone reviewed about it. Thanks for informing me. Oh yeah, I checked the character up but Cardinal seemed to be quite different in the series. I kinda prefer the Cardinal I wrote about.

Also, I tried to make the chapter a bit longer so I added at least 500 more words. But with my attention span, its hard to reach at least 2k. I'll try next chapter. But until then, please read and enjoy. Feed backs are much appreciated./

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It had been a couple of months past since the beta test was over. Kirito was still brooding over his encounter with Cardinal. He never had any answers to the questions that ticked off his mind. But nevertheless, it might just be because the game wasn't up to its fullest—not up to its completion. He sighed before looking up to his monitor and reading a newly received message on Skype.

"Sup, fanboy? Had enough sleep last night? Today's finally the day your idol officially opens up the game server in full release," contained the message. Kirito's mouth twitched for a moment as he read over the word 'fanboy' once more. He never understood why he bothered with this acquaintance of his.

Kirito typed in, "Can you stop calling me that? Anyway, do you have any information about the thing I asked you?" He already knew the answer but a part of him hoped that was to be proved wrong. 'Come on, this is the only reason I actually talk to you,' he thought to himself.

A reply quickly came. But much to his dismay, he was correct. "Nope. Its either you were dreaming about the whole thing or there's a conspiracy in the system. Don't worry, I'll check more about it later—after I descend on that haven called Aincrad. Anyway, check you later!"

Kirito sighed once more before inserting the disc of Sword Art Online to his computer and head towards his bed where the Nerve Gear was. 'Here we go again,' he thought to himself as he equipped the console on his head and sat down on the centre of the bed.

"Why am I so obsessed about it anyway? Its just a game," he convinced himself. Kirito lied down on his bed and turned on the Nerve Gear. 'But for me, games are... something else. I wonder why?' he pondered on the thought before dismissing it.

It was game time for him. Back again to the world he waited for—back to the world that the person he looked up to made. Kayaba Akihiko's masterpiece, Sword Art Online.

"Link Start!" he shouted the command which enabled the Nerve Gear to proceed operating to its full dive usage.

* * *

He enabled the data transfer of his beta testing account to the official release of the game. It didn't really matter since there was no other privilege of being a beta tester than just experiencing the game first hand—or earlier than others. Also, less time to configure avatar customization since it was already saved before unless he wanted to change something and override the data. Kirito had no time for that. The blood of the adventurer was calling him.

Lights swallowed the view as he was transported to the virtual dimension that he dearly missed. The world of Aincrad never ceased to amaze him. A pillar of light had transported him to the starting town, [ **The Town of Beginnings** ]. As he slowly descended, he saw the bird's eye view of the town. It was quite a breath taking scenery that he just had to cherish.

It was an enormous circularly structured town with walls made up of concrete and laced intricately with lookout towers. The buildings inside the city was somewhat medieval—some were made up of bricks and refined or reenforced wood. The pavement was made up of stones that seemed to be older that his parents were because it had cracks and bits of plants had grown inside those crevices. It had been just an hour since the sever was up and the town was already filled with players. The most congested part of the town was the market area. It was no question that it would be the case since people usually look at the store of the NPCs to see if they sell anything useful. Or some just wanted to engage a conversation with others.

Kirito finally descended into the town. He started at the centre near the enormous fountain. The streets still looked the same way as it did in the beta. If things barely changed inside the game, then it was no problem navigating through the first levels of the game. 'I better get started. Its a long way towards the top,' he thought to himself as he looked up towards the clear blue sky.

* * *

The quickest way out of town was to take a straight path towards the nearby alleyway of the marketplace. Although the congested area seemed to have slowed him down by a notch, he didn't seem to mind because the chatter made the environment sparkle with liveliness. Some NPCs were somewhat programmed to make music. It wasn't half bad, according to Kirito's standards.

He smiled as he ran straight through the alleyway. But he suddenly stopped at a corner when he heard someone yelling for him to stop. Kirito turned around to face a male player about as tall as his avatar was or taller. He looked at this stranger with pink hair and motif or red as a starting armour with a confused look. "Uh, what's up?" Kirito asked as he eyed on the pink hair male who was breathing quite hard.

After a few moments, the stranger finally got himself together and quickly said to Kirito, "You seem to know your way around here. You were in the beta test, weren't you?"

Kirito sighed to himself as he scratched the back of his head.

He definitely knew where this was going.

* * *

Along the edge of the town was Kirito and his new companion, Klein. Both of them looked at the breathtaking scenery of the luscious green meadows before setting a foot outside of town. The wind blew by, calling out to them on their first journey. Kirito eyed on Klein who seemed to be mesmerized by the view. If he didn't saw himself in Klein's place as a newbie, he wouldn't have accepted his request. It was too much of a hassle to explain the basics.

"Well, we better go before-" Kirito said as he stepped outside of town. But he didn't have the chance to finish his sentence because of a strange phenomenon that occurred.

The moment he blinked his eyes, he saw what seemed to bother him for the longest time.

Cardinal was there in front of him. She hadn't change a thing. She still had the same short uneven cut blond hair, the same deep blue eyes, the same white dress, and the same white bladed wings. He was back in the [ **Barren of Fog** ], where they first met. But this time, she didn't seem like she had things under control like before. There were multiple shadows surrounding her, they all raised their blades and started attacking her with those floating black swords. She deflected some of the attacks by using her white floating blades to counter it. But quite a few managed to pierce through her defence.

She continued to fight while she was severely injured. Cardinal didn't falter with her resolve and she continued to wield her blade until she managed to eliminate one of the shadows. But as soon as she defeated one, her defences were open which the shadows took advantage of.

All at once, shadows circled around her and sent all of the blades towards her. All the swords pierced through her body. She let out a scream as soon as the shadows retracted back the swords. Her white bladed wings started to fall one by one as she succumb to the fatal damage that the shadows inflicted. Cardinal soon slowly fell but before she could hit the ground, the shadows took one last step.

The shadows fused together, forming one massive and powerful looking shadow. It dematerialized all the black swords and turned it into one dark blade that emitted a fearful and evil aura. The reenforced shadow held the blade and quickly dived towards Cardinal to deal the final blow. It pierced the sword to her heart and she was impaled to the lone rock at the centre of the vicinity.

Kirito stood there silently, baffled by everything that he had just witnessed. 'What's going on?' he thought to himself. He didn't understand anything that was happening.

The shadow stood up and regained its form before tightly holding the grip of the sword that pierced through Cardinal. It concentrated. Cardinal slowly lost her white glow, as the shadow seemed to have drained it and absorbs the white glow to the black sword. The once black sword turned fully white like what Cardinal's sword looked like.

After the extraction was complete, the shadow took out the sword out of Cardinal and summoned its dark blades. It used the extracted blade and slashed the virtual dimension. The shadow entered a portal of some sort and vanished, leaving Cardinal lying on top of the rock.

She reached out to the sky before her arm fell lifelessly. Cardinal looked towards her side. She saw Kirito staring at her with a confused and shock look.

Kirito seemed to have snapped from his trance and decided to run towards Cardinal. But he ran towards some sort of a transparent wall that disabled him from running up to her side. He looked at her with a worried look as he tried to bashed down the invisible wall. Cardinal mouthed a few words to him before everything started to fade.

He couldn't hear what she said until he went back to the time line he was before in the virtual reality.

Kirito tried to reach out, but his efforts were in vain.

Before she faded completely out of his sight. He finally got was she was trying to say.

"Save yourself."


End file.
